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Savannah Now
December 23, 2013
Shan Demetrius Cheley was convicted Friday night of malice murder but acquitted on a rape charge in the Sept. 30, 2012, slaying of Amber DeLoach.
In addition to the malice murder charge, the Chatham County Superior Court jury convicted Cheley of felony murder during the commission of an aggravated assault, aggravated assault and arson.
The seven women and five men on the jury acquitted him on a second felony-murder charge of causing the death of DeLoach, a former St. Vincent’s Academy student and Islands High School alumna, during the commission of a rape.
Jurors also convicted Cheley on a charge of possession of cocaine which was seized from him Oct. 4, 2012, during his initial interview with Savannah-Chatham police detectives.
The verdict, read in court about 10:25 p.m., came after seven hours of deliberations Friday. Jurors got the case about 3:30 p.m.
Judge Timothy R. Walmsley said he would schedule a sentencing hearing in mid-January. Malice murder is punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole or by life without the possibility of parole.
Cheley, 38, stood silently as the verdicts were read in a hushed courtroom. He was returned to the Chatham County jail, where he has been held without bail, to await sentencing.
DeLoach, 18, was found slain in the trunk of a burning Dodge Avenger which had been rented from Enterprise car rentals. Evidence showed she was dead when the vehicle was set afire about 6:40 a.m.
Prosecutors contended Cheley met the victim in City Market, took her to his home at 10 Little Country Place where he raped and strangled her, before driving her in the trunk of the rented vehicle to Yamacraw Village where he set the car ablaze with gasoline he purchased from a nearby BP station.
Cheley admitted he had “rough sex” with the victim, but said it was consensual in return for drugs.
In closing arguments Friday, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Guyer told the jury Cheley engaged in lies and concealments to cover up his crimes.
“This is a case of strangulation,” she said. “Strangling a person takes a long time.”
Guyer told jurors that prosecutors had presented “overwhelming evidence” to prove their case and urged the jury to “give her justice” and convict Cheley on all counts.
Earlier Friday, Assistant District Attorney Christy Barker argued that Cheley’s case was “kind of a shotgun defense.”
“What is the defense in this case?” she asked jurors. “Well it depends, doesn’t it? I didn’t do it but if I did do it, she asked for it… deserved it… I was high (on cocaine).”
But Assistant public defender Falen Cox told jurors that the state’s evidence “simply doesn’t make sense.” She said physical evidence in the case did not fit the prosecutor’s vision.
Focusing on testimony by “jailhouse snitch” Patrick George against her client, Cox said he was simply “looking for his get out of jail free card”.
“Now you can understand why my client lied over and over again,” Cox told the jury.
Cheley elected not to testify in his defense.
